With no major glitches, Common Aptitude Test (CAT) 2012, took off smoothly on Thursday, with only three centres in the Delhi-NCR region reporting late start of the exam for minor problems. Two centres at Delhi and the only centre in Faridabad reported a delay of 40-45 minutes in starting the test due to computer log-in problems. But no problems were reported once after the start.

The first day was also marked by low turnouts. Around 5,000 aspirants took the test on the first day across the country, according to an official statement. Lower turnout on the first day is normal, experts say, as candidates generally stay away in the initial days. The test will be conducted over 21 days.

Around 21,000 out of the total 2.14 lakh candidates are from Delhi-NCR who will take the test in 10 centres. According to professor S S S Kumar of IIM, Kozhikode, who is the CAT 2012 convener, “10% of the candidates are from the NCR region. There has been no untoward incident reported so far from any centres.”

Aspirants found the section on quantitative ability tough as questions were time consuming. The focus on algebra in this section has been higher as well. In the data interpretation portion in the first section, one of the three sets has been relatively tough, which was same with the logical reasoning in the second. In the second section, the reading comprehension part had three passages of 10 questions (3+3+4) and most were direct questions in one of the set. Verbal ability had a mix of four to five types of questions. There were 10 questions and the difficulty level was not high. There were no surprises and overall difficulty level has been moderate, the students said.